page_title: Blacksburg, Virginia
section_title: Blacksburg's establishment (1798–1870)
hierarchical_section_title: Blacksburg, Virginia / History / Blacksburg's establishment (1798–1870)
caption_attribution_description: English: The downtown post office in Blacksburg, Virginia
context_page_description: Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 42,620 at the 2010 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia Tech.
  Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the city of Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses those jurisdictions and all of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Giles counties for statistical purposes. The MSA has an estimated population of 181,863 and is currently one of the faster-growing MSAs in Virginia.
  In 2011, BusinessWeek named Blacksburg as the "Best Place in the U.S. to Raise Kids". Also in 2011, readers of Southern Living named Blacksburg the "Best College Town in the South". Its public transportation system, Blacksburg Transit, which also connects to the neighboring town of Christiansburg, has repeatedly been recognized for the quality of its service. Blacksburg High School, which in 2013 opened a new building, is often ranked among the top schools of the nation for its academics.
context_section_description: After Black petitioned the state legislature to establish a town at the site, the official establishment and founding of Blacksburg was January 13, 1798 on the 38.75-acre (15.68 ha) tract that he laid out. The following August 4, he signed over the deed to the town trustees. The town was named after him in his honor.
  In 1808, a log cabin was built just east of Smithfield Plantation. Robert Preston, a future colonel of the 28th Virginia Infantry, lived here, as did two Virginia governors. The cabin was later added to in the mid 19th century to create a Greek Revival farmhouse now known as Solitude, which is the oldest building on the Virginia Tech campus. In 1872, the 250 acre Solitude farm became the central campus of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the house, after the death of its owner in the following decade, served as a college infirmary from 1882 to 1886. It was later used for faculty housing.
  According to records of the Post Office Department of the National Archives and Records Administration, the post office was established as "BLACKSBURGH" on April 8, 1827. The name was changed to the current spelling (without the "h") in 1893.
  The Methodists had built two cabins to worship in since the town's founding, but they did not build a more permanent structure until 1830, when they constructed a brick church. The Presbyterians were the next Christian denomination to build a church within Blacksburg's limits. In 1848 they built their first brick building at 117 South Main Street. Though still standing, this building has not been used as a church for many years. It was once South Main Café, but is currently used as a restaurant called Cabo Fish Taco. It is also the oldest building on Main Street. The Baptists founded the third oldest church in the town in 1852.
  In 1832, Westview Cemetery was established from a few acres of land that were deeded to trustees.
  One of the first educational establishments started here was the Blacksburg Female Academy in 1840. The Olin and Preston Institute (re-charted as Preston and Olin Institute in 1869) was a Methodist-sponsored academy established in 1851.
  The first bank in Montgomery County, Blacksburg Savings Institution, was established in 1849. The first newspaper published in Blacksburg was the Montgomery Messenger. Its first issue was printed in 1869.
caption: The downtown Post Office in Blacksburg
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